Will Britain's Common Toads Be Saved from Roads and Terrible Decline?

It's a Friday evening at half past seven, but rather than going out or watching a film, I've taken a train to a market town in the countryside to meet up with volunteers from a toad patrol. These dedicated individuals give up their evenings to safeguard the native amphibian community.

A Worrying Decline in Numbers

The Bufo bufo is becoming increasingly uncommon. A latest research led by an amphibian and reptile charity showed that the UK toad population have almost halved since the mid-1980s. Seeing a creature that has been a fixture of the UK landscape in decline is described as "concerning" by researchers. Toads "don't need very specific conditions" and "should be able to live successfully in the majority of areas in Britain," meaning if even they are struggling to persist, "it kind of suggests that the ecosystem is unbalanced."

Toad populations across the UK have declined by almost 50% since the 1980s

The Threat from Roads

Though the study didn't cover the causes for the drop, cars is a major factor. Estimates indicate that 20 tons of toads are crushed on UK roads every year – that is, several hundred thousand. Unlike frogs, which might be content to mate "with just a small container," toads favor big bodies of water. Their capacity to stay out of water for more time than frogs means they can travel further to reach them – often hundreds of metres. They tend to follow their traditional paths – it's common for mature amphibians to return to their birth pond to mate.

Migration Patterns

Appropriately enough, the initial amphibians start their journey for a mate around Valentine's day, but some move as late as April, waiting until it gets dark and moving after sunset. During that time, toads start moving from wherever they have been hibernating "almost simultaneously."

A local helper, who grew up in the region and has been trying to protect its amphibians since he was a child, explains that "Their sole purpose: to go and have an orgy." If their route crosses a street, they could all get run over, and that breeding season would be lost – preventing a new generation of toads from being produced.

Rescue Groups Across the United Kingdom

Finding many of dead toads on nearby streets "resonates deeply with people," and has led to the formation of rescue teams throughout the UK – 274 groups are currently registered with a countrywide program. These teams collect toads and carry them across roads in buckets, as well as recording the number of toads they find and advocating for other protection measures, such as blocked roads and amphibian passages.

Patrols tend to operate during the breeding period, when amphibian movements are frequent. However, this means they can miss groups of young toads, which, having been spawn and then tadpoles, exit their water habitats over an unpredictable schedule in late summer. Because of their small stature – just a couple of cm wide – "they can get obliterated by car traffic." And as being hit "essentially crushes them," it's harder to collect information on them. At least when adult toads are lost, their remains can be tallied.

Annual Efforts

In contrast to most patrols, a specific volunteer group, who are in their eighth season of operating, go out year-round – not every night, but when conditions are warm and wet, or if a member has posted about a toad sighting in their group chat. When I ask to join them on duty, they admit it is "not a toady night" – toad hibernation season has started and it's been a dry day – but several of the helpers willingly accept to patrol their area with me and see what we can find. "If anyone can locate any toads tonight, those two will spot one," says the patrol manager, pointing to her teenage child and the experienced member. We've been out for 120 minutes without a single toad sighting, and now they have scaled a barbed wire fence to check under some logs.

Community Participation

The family duo joined the patrol a year and a half ago. The teenager adores all things nature-related and has an goal to become a conservationist, so his mother started to search for activities they could do together to help local wildlife. Now she enjoys it as much as he does, the middle-aged small business owner tells me – so when the team was seeking a new manager recently, she volunteered for the role.

The teenager, too, has been instrumental in the organization. A video he made, imploring the municipal authority to block a street through a protected area during breeding time, swung the decision the group's way. After a year of campaigning, the authority agreed to an "access-only" restriction between 5pm and 5am from February through to spring. The majority of motorists duly avoided the route.

Additional Species and Difficulties

A few vehicles go by when I'm out on patrol and we discover some casualties as a consequence – no amphibians, but three squashed newts. We spot one live amphibian as well, and the teenager is especially excited to see a daddy longlegs, which moves in his palms. Yet in spite of the team's hardest attempts to let me see a toad, the local population has clearly gone dormant for the winter. It appears that I wouldn't have had any better success elsewhere in the country – all the rescue teams I contact explain that it's very difficult at this season.

This team anticipates assisting around ten thousand mature toads over the street

A message I receive from another volunteer, who has generously made the effort to check for toads in a famous site, considered the largest accurately monitored toad population in the UK, arrives in my inbox with the subject line: "No toads." However, in February and March, he informs me, the group plans to assist approximately ten thousand adult toads over the street.

Impact and Limitations

What level of impact can these groups actually make? "The fact that people are doing this consistently on chilly, wet and miserable evenings is remarkable," says an expert. "This effort that very much should be celebrated." However, while toad patrols are able to slow the decline, they can't stop it completely – partly since vehicles is not the only threat.

Additional Threats

The climate crisis has resulted in longer periods of drought, which cause the wrong conditions for some of the creatures that toads consume, such as invertebrates, while higher water temperatures have led to an increase of blue-green algae, which can be toxic to toads. Warmer cold seasons also cause toads to wake up from their hibernation more often, interfering with the energy conservation crucial to their existence. Loss of environment – especially the disappearance of large ponds – is an additional threat.

Experts are "always a bit worried about putting too much of a utilitarian spin on wildlife," however "It's important in just having these animals around." But toads do have an important role in the ecosystem, consuming pretty much any small creatures or small animals they can fit in their mouths and in turn sustaining a number of birds and mammals, such as wildlife. Improving situations for toads – ie creating more ponds, protecting forests and constructing toad tunnels – "benefits for a wide range of other species."

Cultural Importance

Another reason to try to keep toads around is their "important cultural value," adds an expert. Legends and tales around toads date back {centuries|hundred